When it comes to “ridesharing” apps like Uber and Lyft, the law has been slow to catch up on the latest app-driven taxi scheme. Debating if they are consultants or employees, cities have been torn apart as Taxi drivers argue that they use loopholes to avoid extra charges that Taxis have to pay. This may change thanks to San Francisco now requiring Uber and Lyft drivers to own a business permit if they want to keep working within the city.
City Treasurer Jose Cisneros has apparently sent out 37,018 letters to drivers within the city to let them know about the new requirement, ultimately forcing Uber and Lyft to either recognise their drivers as staff or get business permits and act as contractors. With each permit costing only $91 a year (if you make less than $100,00 a year) then the funding coming in from the new requirement comes to around $3.37 million a year!
Uber responded in a statement to SFGate saying that as its drivers were independent contracts they were “responsible for following appropriate local requirements” while Lyfts spokesperson Chelsea Wilson was less than candid in saying that their company opposed thew new plans, saying that the company has “serious concerns with the city’s plan to collect and display Lyft drivers’ personal information in a publicly available database”.
When you think of startups, you often think of a small group of people working on a new gadget or maybe a new piece of software. Boom is a little different, the startup looks to create the world’s fastest passenger plane.
Boom looks to create a plane that will go supersonic at speeds of around 2.2 times the speed of sound. Compared to traditional airlines, which travel at Mach 0.85, Boom would outshine them at every turn and even the Concord traveled at only Mach 2.0. This would mean that Boom’s passenger jet would offer travel times of 3.5 hours from New York to London and only 4.5 hours for San Fransisco to Tokyo.
While the project is in its early stages the company looks strong with its 11 employees contributing on 787’s, fighter jets and spaceships. The project just gets bigger and bigger with Virgin Group optioning ten planes in a deal that comes in at around $2 billion. This isn’t their biggest contract, with another group (who choose to remain unnamed) optioning 15 at an amazing $5 billion.
This doesn’t mean they’ve been bought, but instead that once the plans and designs for the planes are in full swing, they will purchase them. It is a letter of intent meant to show their interest, something that relies heavily on the results of Boom successfully designing, creating and testing a successful supersonic jet.
The deal gets only sweeter with The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s space division, offering to help build and test the planes. With big names like that backing and supporting your group, our eyes are open to the possibility of quick flights around the world at supersonic speeds in the not too distant future.
So you find someone who wants to do business, how would you go about advertising your company way after you’ve even met? Some people will give you an email address or phone number while the most prepared will have a nice and shiny business card waiting for your hand before you’ve even broken eye contact. You can get all kinds of business cards, plastic or card and some are even USB memory sticks in disguise. What if you are in a specialist career like a cardiologist? Why not have an ECG card?
Designed by a company titled MobilECG, the latest card has two sensors that can measure your readings just like an actual medical ECG machine. By placing your two thumbs on the provided finger pads, you will get an ECG reading just like those shown on TV. While it isn’t designed to be a diagnostic tool, as clearly stated on the card, the concept is a novel one.
Currently costing $29 per card, the current design is there to merely gauge interest in the product and you can even find the code available for free on the open source repository site GitHub. If that isn’t enough you can even find the schematics for the card here.
Ubisoft has revealed its roadmap for the next three years, over which period it plans to grow its revenues by 60%. The French company’s plan includes scaling back the yearly release of games in its Assassin’s Creed franchise and expanding its intellectual properties into transmedia franchises, following the production of the forthcoming Assassin’s Creed movie, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed during an Investor Day call [PDF].
Guillemot says that the AAA games industry has become less hit-driven to become a more dependable business space, at least for the major players. Ubisoft will also focus on multiplayer games with a long life cycle, high engagement, and year-round and multi-year services as part of “a clear strategic road map that has already started to deliver,” the Financial Times reports.
“We want shareholders to have the right information about where we are going and how we will get there, and to understand how dangerous creeping control could be,” Guillemot said.
Ubisoft has also announced that it will break its yearly release cycle of Assassin’s Creed games, starting this year. Instead, it will “re-examine” its approach to the series, with no new game due in 2016.
“This year, we also are stepping back and re-examining the Assassin’s Creed franchise. As a result, we’ve decided that there will not be a new Assassin’s Creed game in 2016. Since the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity, we’ve learned a lot based on your feedback. We’ve also updated our development processes and recommitted to making Assassin’s Creed a premier open-world franchise. We’re taking this year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we’re delivering on the promise of Assassin’s Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences that make history everyone’s playground.”
Ubisoft shares closed up 11 per cent to €22.31 on Thursday (18th February).
With its share price plummeting and five of its top executive leaving the company, future prospects for Twitter have been branded as “universally negative” by investors, Business Insider reports. The departures were confirmed by new CEO Jack Dorsey on Twitter.
Was really hoping to talk to Twitter employees about this later this week, but want to set the record straight now: pic.twitter.com/PcpRyTzOlW
Head of Product Kevin Weil, Head of Media Katie Jacobs Stanton, Head of Engineering Alex Roetter, Head of HR Skip Schipper, and Head of Vine Jason Toff have all abandoned ship, the latter to return to work for Google.
Following the news, and reports that Twitter’s share price had dropped further to $17, Bob Peck ar SunTrust said, “Investors we speak with are almost universally negative on Twitter and its prospects.” SunTrust currently rates Twitter shares as ‘buy’.
“While we may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, we don’t see how the departure of the heads of three major business divisions can be viewed as a positive in the middle of an attempted business turnaround,” added Scott Devitt at Stifel, which has also downgraded Twitter from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’.
The appointment of Dorsey as Twitter CEO was hoped to correct the company’s downward spiral – shares have dropped by 50% over the past year – but his short tenure has seen the situation only worsen.
Ailing multinational company Yahoo has lost over a third of its workforce over the last twelve months, in a shocking show of no-confidence in current CEO Marissa Mayer, according to a report in the New York Times.
“Basically, it shows employees losing faith in Marissa Mayer and Yahoo,” Scott Dobroski, spokesman for employment rating site Glassdoor, said.
While Mayer has fought hard to retain staff members that have been offered positions at competing companies with lucrative retention packages, the move has had the knock-on effect of causing resentment amongst colleagues who otherwise remained loyal when offered jobs elsewhere. Her strategy having backfired, Mayer is now pursuing mass layoffs, to be announced at the end of this month. Yahoo shareholders are desperate for Mayer to be fired before she can enact this plan.
“Only 34 percent of employees believe that Yahoo’s prospects are improving, according to surveys conducted by Glassdoor, a firm that collects data on jobs and employers,” the New York Times report reads. “That compares with 61 percent who are optimistic at Twitter, another troubled tech company, and 77 percent who see a bright future at Google, Ms. Mayer’s former employer.”
“One Yahoo employee who was interviewed said she was praying to be laid off so she could collect a severance payment and move on with her life,” the report continues. “Others said they were actively looking for their next jobs — a task made more difficult because of the taint of failure that potential employers sometimes associate with anyone at the struggling company.”
“We’re still hiring, and our application numbers are strong,” Yahoo said in a statement. The company refused to comment on staff morale.
The UK games industry is expecting to see significant growth in 2016, with many major businesses increasing their investment and seeking to hire new staff, according to UK video game trade association TIGA. However, many companies expect their overheads to rise, meaning that prices are set to increase to compensate.
A recent survey conducted by TIGA found that:
60 per cent of respondents plan to grow their organisation’s workforce a little over the next year. 12 per cent expect their workforce to grow a lot.
54 per cent of respondents to the TIGA survey said that the outlook for investment in their business (for example, in R&D, training, new games development, etc) was more optimistic than compared to 12 months ago.
66 per cent of respondents to the TIGA survey forecast that the trend in their company’s net profits over the next 12 months would be up.
67 per cent of respondents reported that their company was performing either ‘very well’ or ‘well’.
46 per cent of the respondents to the TIGA survey said that the principal obstacle holding back their businesses was limited access to finance.
56 per cent of respondents anticipate that their company’s costs are likely to increase over the next 12 months.
38 per cent of games businesses in our survey expect that their prices will increase over the next 12 months.
63 per cent of respondents to the TIGA survey believe that the economic and business environment in the UK is favourable to the video games industry.
“The UK video games development and digital publishing sector is set to grow in 2016. Our survey shows that games businesses are planning to increase investment and employment. This growth is being driven by three factors,” Dr Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, said.
“Firstly, the consumer market for games is significant and growing. Already games are played in 70% of households, and over 50% of all UK adults are mobile gamers.”
“Secondly, the increasing prevalence of mobile and tablet devices, the new console generation, and the advent of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are stimulating investment in games.”
“Thirdly, Video Games Tax Relief, which TIGA played a critical role in achieving, is fuelling growth. Games Tax Relief effectively reduces the cost and risk of games development and it incentivises investment and job creation in the games industry. Games Tax Relief is predicted to create 2,700 new development jobs and £320 million in investment over the next five years,” Wilson said.
“2016 is set to be another good year for the UK video games industry,” added Jason Kingsley OBE, TIGA Chairman and CEO and Creative Director at Rebellion. “There are new start-ups, existing firms are expanding and new technologies are boosting innovation and growth in the sector. I am particularly pleased that Video Games Tax Relief, a measure that TIGA consistently campaigned for over many years, is having a positive impact on growth in our sector.”
Toshiba CEO was forced to resign after revelations came to fruition about the company’s management exaggerating operating profits by as much as $1.2 billion. Clearly, this has made a profound impact on their reputation among partners and consumers. According to The Wall Street Journal, The company is set to make a $4.5 billion annual loss with 7,800 jobs being cut as part of a large restructuring programme. Toshiba is having to make difficult decisions to try to restore faith in the company and rebuild once again. However, given their tarnished reputation, it’s impossible to know if they have a long-term future.
Out out the job losses, 6,800 are going from Toshiba’s customer electronics and applications department. Toshiba President Masashi Muromachi said about the upcoming financial period:
“We admit our steps toward restructuring were behind the curve,”
“The damage wouldn’t be this large if we had been able to implement overhaul plans much sooner.”
He also suggested that the company would “focus on businesses that can generate profits” and “consider withdrawals from unprofitable ones if a turnaround is difficult.” This is an interesting statement to make and exemplifies how challenging Toshiba’s future is. It seems even the company’s CEO isn’t optimistic about the profitability of certain markets. This means is perfectly feasible for them to exit the consumer electronic sector to stay afloat.
The smartphone market is expected to stagnate as sales grow at a slower pace in major western territories. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule such as India where the introduction of affordable handsets increases the ownership rate by a significant margin. However, it can be argued that smartphone users are less likely to upgrade considering the capabilities of their current handsets. According to data acquired by USA Today, Apple’s stock value dropped by over $160 billion and showcases the challenges in the smartphone market. Here we can see the effects of this downturn and some critics have argued this trend will continue in the near future:
Apple could become a victim of its own success, as it’s extraordinarily difficult to keep increasing sales figures while being at the top. It’s plausible for a downturn to occur as consumers become content with the current offerings or simply look for alternatives. In an era where there’s powerful yet affordable smartphones out there, it’s possible that the iPhone’s price might alienate a section of the market. On the other hand, Apple’s recent iPhone launch set new sales records and did remarkably well. Currently, the smartphone decline appears to be a result of the Chinese market not posting the kind of sales figures many companies hoped for.
Online retail giant, Amazon is a popular choice for consumers wanting to purchase goods at reasonable prices while relying on a proven track record in customer service. When compared to other stores, Amazon’s buying power is difficult to match and provides a huge array of items from electrical products to digital novels. According to research firm, Slice Intelligence, Amazon made up 39.3 percent of sales between November 1st and December 6th in the US market. This marks a significant increase from the 37.9 percent share last year during the same period. Ken Cassar, Vice President of analytics solutions at Slice provided an explanation for this success and said:
“Jeff Bezos was beaten up for a long time about the infrastructure investments he made and the drain on profitability it caused,”
“He is seeing the payoff on those investments.”
The chart shows Amazon’s astounding sales figures in the US market, and showcases how far behind many of the competing stores are. Amazon’s investment into infrastructure and their recognizable brand helps to encourage shoppers to spend money while remaining a loyal customers. Obviously, this is during the Thanksgiving and Christmas period so the data might favour Amazon at this time compared to other months. Whatever the case, this is an extraordinary achievement and emphasizes how important Amazon is as an etailer in the USA.
Razer is one of the leading peripheral manufacturers in the world and continues to grow at an impressive pace. More specifically, in 2014, the company was valued at over $1 billion due to an undisclosed investment from Intel. Over the last few years, Razer has expanded beyond the peripheral market and sold products in other sectors such as the Razer Blade 2015 ultrabook. Their financial success has given them the room to open a corporate venture capital fund which allow clients to use Razer’s industry expertise. CEO and co-founder Min-Liang Tan told Techcrunch:
“The plan is really to find strategic companies that we can help and [that can] leverage off of our profile,”
“We’re really globally covered… and can pretty much [assist them] before they even more into a new geographies or jurisdictions.”
“We can [tell portfolio companies that] this is what we learned in this jurisdiction. For example, here’s our European sales manager and they can talk to him. He’s not going to help you do your work, but he’s sure as hell going to take you 70 percent of the way there by telling you what the pitfalls are. We’ve got people on the ground who have been doing the exact same work [for years],”
Razer is already a massive brand name and believes they can employ their marketing skills to help clients become a success story. The current market situation is fragile, and it’s incredibly difficult to be a commercial success. As a result, I can see this venture becoming quite popular as companies or individuals seek an investment. Currently, there isn’t a specific date set for Razer’s capital fund, but it looks likely to begin sometime in 2016.
Today’s review is a real pleasure for me as I get to take a closer look and test an elite class business NAS with built-in 10GbE and high availability function. I got Thecus’ N7770-10G 7-bay business NAS on the table and I’m going to give it thorough testing to show you just how amazing it is.
When I review consumer class NAS devices, I often talk about how they are suited for all sorts of media and streaming needs as that is the main focus for that group. The Thecus N7770-10G does all this too and it does it great, but it isn’t what it was designed for. This is a business class NAS and as such it needs a whole other set of features and functionality. You get a complete backup solution that includes the use of external devices, cloud backup, snapshots, and client backup as well as total security thanks to Intel Security Antivirus, AES 256-bit encryption, and VPN server functionality. The N7770-10G still provides all the mobile connectivity and media streaming capabilities as well as centralized authentication control.
The Thecus N7770-10G NAS isn’t built around a low-power ARM or Intel Celeron CPU, instead it’s built with a full Intel Core i3-2120 dual-core processor that has a base clock speed of 3.3GHz. To go with that CPU, you get 8GB DDR3 ECC memory that is expandable all the way to 32GB, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 10GbE card pre-installed, and 7 drive bays for a lot of raw storage.
It is my personal opinion that we have been stuck at 1Gbps ethernet connections for way too long. While we had the ability to link those together to achieve better connections, it is old by now and today’s needs also increase the need for better connectivity. In that regard, I’m glad to see Thecus having this model with an included 10GbE adapter, making it ready for the step into the next speed category. It still features two Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet connections too, which you naturally all can link aggregate and trunk. Further, you get a total of six USB 2.0 ports where two of them are on the front and two USB 3.0 ports on the rear. The HDMI port further allows you to turn your NAS into the ultimate multimedia hub by connecting the NAS directly to your TV or monitor.
The N7770-10G supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 10, 50 and JBOD modes besides single disk usage. You can create multiple RAID volumes with different modes, only limited by the amount of drives you have available for the pool. Should a hard drive malfunction occur, changing one is simple thanks to online RAID migration and expansion, hot spare, and auto rebuild. You can also pick which filesystem you prefer as the N7770-10G supports EXT3, EXT4, Btrfs and XFS for increased flexibility and ability to suit many different types of environments. Users can simultaneously use different file systems across multiple RAID volumes to get the best of each one.
iSCSI Thin-Provisioning is a thing that many people still read past as they don’t really know what it is, but it is well worth getting the handle on, as you can manage your storage better and get better speeds. Connect through iSCSI for the fastest data transfer speeds available and make wasted disk space a thing of the past with thin provisioning’s flexible storage functionality. Windows Server, NT, and XP users will need to download the iSCIC initiator from Microsoft, but Windows 7, 8, and 10 users, for example, have it built right into the OS. If in doubt, just search for iSCSI from your Windows start menu search.
Two awesome features in Thecus NAS’ that often are overlooked, are the Disk Clone and Disk Wipe functions. Both can be extremely useful for both business and home users. The Disk Clone features allows you to copy the entire contents of a disk to one or many other disks while the Disk Wipe function allows you to permanently destroy a volumes data.
Business data is sensitive data and sensitive data needs to be protected. Thecus N7770-10G offers AES 256-bit RAID volume encryption that allows you to fully encrypt the entire RAID volume. Sensitive data also has to be sent and received with the proper security, for this you can set up the VPN server. It allows users to remotely access a secure network with the equipment already at hand.
Data Guard backup solution is the ultimate software as it provides both local and remote parts. Currently, data is backed up across RAID volumes and external drives. In addition, Data Guard uses innovative technology to sync data across the network to other NAS and servers. It makes managing NAS user-friendly and convenient. But there are many ways to backup your data and the Thecus N7770-10G pretty much supports them all.
With BTRFS support, users can enjoy the simplicity of snapshot backups. Snapshots of data at various time points can be manually or automatically made and just as easily later restored to rollback files or folders to previous states. Rsync is probably the most common used technique and Thecus supports this too. It gives great flexibility with remote backup capability, a flexible scheduler, and the stability of Linux-based transfer.
You can easily create your own cloud solution with the Thecus N7770-10G, but that doesn’t mean that the existing cloud providers should be counted out. There can be many reasons to use these services and Thecus supportsDropBox, Amazon S3, and ElephantDrive cloud backup functionality. The best here is that it is as easy to use and setup as all the normal and local sharing functions.
Data Burn is another great feature that comes in line with the previous mentioned Disk Clone and Disk Wipe features. With Data Burn, you can connect a CD, DVD, or Blue-ray burner and create physical optical backups of your data. In addition, it also supports burning of ISO image files instead. You can of course also use a connected optical drive to easily backup the data to your NAS.
When you buy a Thecus NAS like this, you also get a few extra software pieces that are well worth having. The hardware in itself is solid quality while failovers and redundancies are available for almost all systems. But you also need to protect your files and an Antivirus software is perfect for this. Thecus partnered with McAfee and includes their award-winning software for free.
Acronis True Image is also included for free and it is one of the easiest ways to manage your backups, I use it quite often on both a personal level and for my reviews setups. It is one of the easiest pieces of backup software available with a long set of functions and One-click protection setups.
Keeping an eye on the NAS while you’re on the go isn’t a problem either thanks to iOS and Android connectivity. With T-OnTheGo and the T-Dashboard, you can manage your NAS, and upload to and download/stream from your NAS using an iOS or Android device on the go.
Feature Highlights
Intel Core i3-2120 (3.3.GHz Dual Core) processor
8 GB DDR3 ECC Memory (Expandable to 32 GB)
10GbE card included
1 x HDMI port
Hot-swappable hard drives
RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and JBOD
Packaging and Accessories
The front and the back of the box look the same, and it looks stunning. There is no doubt looking at the package that we’re dealing with a premium NAS. The feature highlights as well as the NAS itself are shown clearly and easy to spot.
The side of the box goes more into detail on the specifications and package content. This is also where it will be marked what market it is intended for, which really only comes down to what power cable is included.
The other side shows the feature highlights and how it can be useful in pretty much any scenario. As the box says, A NAS for every need.
Inside the box we find a power cable for our region, a single RJ45 ethernet cable, four keys for the drive trays, screws for seven 3.5-inch drives and screws for seven 2.5-inch drives as well as a utilities disk, warranty card, and quick installation guide.
AMD has been having a rough time as of late, reporting a net loss of $197 million during the third-quarter of 2015, forcing the company into initiating a restructure that will cut 5% of its workforce globally. AMD’s EMEA Component Sales Manager Neil Spicer, however, has told CRN that he is “confident” that the company’s fortunes will turn, and if it “invest[s] heavily” it can “[win] the graphics war”.
“From a personal stance, I am confident [we can be profitable],” Spicer said. “I believe we are working with exactly the right customers, and over the last few years we have become much simpler to execute and do business with.”
“Moving forwards to 2016, we have to have profitable share growth,” he said, adding that AMD must carefully invest in the right areas. “So it’s choosing the right business to go after, both with the company itself and the ecosystem of partners. There is no point in us as a vendor chasing unprofitable partners.”
AMD is still hoping to ride the wave of Windows 10, released this Summer, and the upgrade cycle it has already initiated. “We want to focus [in the areas] we are good at – that’s where we are going to invest heavily. That’s things like winning the graphics battle with gaming and so forth, and we want to be part of this Windows 10 upgrade cycle,” Spicer said.
“Our hope is through our education and market knowledge, that the reseller building that PC for the local dentist or butchers will be building it through an AMD platform,” he added. “Because for £300, or whatever price is decided between the reseller and the business, we should be able to bring better or more performance for the same price point, than our competitors.”
In addition to more focused investment, Spicer say the company intends to form closer relations with its resellers, making the business of selling AMD products more profitable for every party involved. “With the channel you have to measure what’s important to channel customers, so with things like profitability in the channel,” he said. “We want people happily making money on selling AMD products. We don’t have the luxury of being a loss leader; people want profitability selling our products.”
“We are really focused on profitability in the channel, and part of that is also to clear inventory. We don’t want customers sat on weeks and weeks of inventory, because they are putting cash on something that is not selling. So we focus heavily on sell out. That’s with a number of things, such as marketing resources, education training. So we are focused heavily on that from a channel perspective.”
YouTube is a phenomenon which has revolutionized people’s viewing habits and provided a legitimate rival to broadcast Television. The service has progressed at a rapid rate and helped forge the careers of internet celebrities like PewDiePie. Initially, the website was created as a networking tool to bring communities together and share hobbies. Although, my viewpoint is a little idealistic. Google’s acquisition of YouTube contained a long-term plan to make the service profitable. Currently, this isn’t the case but it’s certainly turned into a professional organization where serious money can be made from content creators.
Youtube has decided to enter a business relationship with Lending Club to provide the funds to make a professional YouTube channel or take it to the next level. The announcement reads:
“We’ve partnered with Lending Club to provide YouTube Creators a limited finance offer you can put toward building your channel:
Personal & business loans
Competitive interest rates
Funds in your bank account quickly
YouTube exclusive perks:
Rebate for any origination fees: YouTube will pay back the origination fee, which will be rebated to you by Lending Club.
Qualify for a 5% loan rebate: If you increase either your channel’s average upload frequency or watch time, in the 12 months after you take out your loan, you’ll get a 5% rebate on the original total loan amount. Find out more.“
This is a terrible move on Google’s part and I’m not convinced a cash injection will help YouTube channels to become successful. Additionally, the revenue streams from smaller channels are tiny, so the length of repayment could be extremely long. I feel a lot of people will just ignore this measure, and proceed without relying on loans. However, it’s concerning because people in desperate situations could take out a loan they cannot pay back. As a result, certain vulnerable individuals might end up in hardship, or being sued by the loan company.
If you want to read more information about this loan scheme, please visit here.
Do you think Google are wrong to partner with a loan company?
We reviewed the Thecus N5810pro a while ago here at eTeknix and it was a monster of an NAS that also came with a bigger price tag than most. Not everyone needs all the additions and exceptional connectivity that it has to offer, but they’d still like the same basic features and solid build quality. Those users are in luck now as Thecus just unveiled the new N5810 high-performance quad-core NAS with business-class features.
The N5810 features an Intel Celeron processor J1900 Quad Core 2.0 GHz SoC and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM that can be expanded to 8GB for further performance optimization. It features dual Gigabit Ethernet for linked connections and USB 3.0 ports for fast storage connectivity. The HDMI port allows you to connect it directly to a monitor or TV for direct usage without the use of other systems. A great bonus.
The five-bay design is a great one as it provides the more standard four-port setups with an additional spare disk, if that’s what you want. With 8TB drives you get a raw capacity of 40TB, which is quite nice for this form factor. The LCM display with four buttons on the front allows for quick diagnostics and information as well as basic configuration changes.
Business users will find all the features they like in this NAS, from System failover protection over secure VPN setups to effective backup solutions. You can easily create your own cloud system with this NAS as well as connect it to existing commercial systems such as Amazon and Dropbox. Local backups can be run from clients and external devices just as well as Rsync. Pretty much everything you could want in this area.
Home and enthusiast users are covered well with all sorts of media capabilities. It can stream via Plex and DLNA, is compatible with AirPlay and Chromecast, and also features KODI for the direct HDMI connection.
The N5810 also comes with both Intel security bundled and Acronis Backup. Units will begin shipping globally at the end of November, 2015.
Feature Highlights:
Faster Transfers: 2 LAN Ports for Link Aggregation
99% Virus Prevention: Bundled with Free Intel Security
System Redundancy: Uninterrupted Accessibility with Thecus System Failover
Multiple File Systems: EXT3/EXT4/XFS/Btrfs
Optimal Performance: Embedded with Intel® Celeron J1900 Quad Core CPU
Flexible Expansion: Stackable for up to 5 additional iSCSI volumes with other Thecus NAS
Complete Client Side Protection: Bundled with Free Acronis Software
Easy Customization: Over 700 Apps available in the Thecus App Center
Nvidia and Samsung have been locked in a bit of a patent war for a while now, with Nvidia filing a class action lawsuit claiming that they effectively invented the modern 3D GPU and that Samsung is using it without their permission. Of course, Samsung wasn’t going to back down from such a fight, as they’ve got a huge business of their own to protect and they filed a counter suit against Nvidia.
Recent developments are certainly looking good for Samsung, as the ITC has declared that Samsung has no infringed upon the Nvidia patents for modern GPUs. Nvidia lost 2 out of 3 patent infringement claims, but to rub salt into the wound, the third claim was thrown out on ground of invalidity, giving Samsung a clean win.
Of course, the battle is far from over and Nvidia won’t be packing up their bags and going home just yet. The case is still under review by the full commission and is subject to revision. The final decision will not arrive until February and an Nvidia spokesperson says that they’re still confident in their case against Samsung.
This is patent trolling on the highest level, and if Nvidia did prove to have created the first modern graphics card, the GeForce 256 (see above) and subsequently hold the patents to them thereafter, it could have huge repercussions on Samsung and also Qualcomm, but again, that remains to be seen.
Thank you WCCF for providing us with this information.
You’ve likely seen the absolute uproar that has been spreading on gaming forums and tech websites over the last day or so, suggesting that EA is in talks with CD Projekt Red. The rumour that a fan-loving and dedicated studio such as CD Projekt Red would be snatched up by a money hungry bean counting black hole such as EA scared a lot of people in the industry, but for now, it seems it was a load of rubbish.
Here’s the original quote that was “leaked” this week.
“I’m employee of CDProjekt Red and I have some bad news to share with you. Our management is probably talking with Electronic Arts about potential take over. Electronic Arts representatives are currently visiting our studio and meeting with top management. We are not going to release any game soon, so for sure it’s not about any publishing deal, so the only possible reason for EA guys being here is that they want to buy us.”
And what did CD Projekt Red have to say about this? Check out the tweet below.
@astreamz Just bumped into Marcin Iwiński – it was new to him. I guess the "informer" has better insight than the @CDPROJEKTRED founder. 🙂
Does this fully debunk the rumour? Nope, not really, as it’s pretty common in business to keep things quiet until you sign on the dotted line. However, I honestly can’t see CD Projekt Red selling up shop, but EA does have a big cheque book and a few extra zeros on the end of a number can be hard to refuse.
What do you think, will CD Projekt Red sell out to a big company like EA?
Success is a concept which many of us can relate to, building a company from scratch before selling it for a price tag of $2.5 billion, now that is unique. Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, founder of Minecraft creator Mojang has shared his thoughts on Twitter regarding how his life has evolved after selling up to Microsoft.
So, he must be enjoying his life right? Not as much as you might think as it turns out, one Tweet which is below outlines his predicament.
The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.
This sounds to be a person who did not have a plan once he left Mojang but rather self-defeated, long-term successful entrepreneurs always envisage the next venture, what will be next? How do I make it happen? To say that there is no reason to “keep trying” is an individual missing a huge opportunity, he has a big check book in order to constructively invest in many an avenue.
The appearance of wealth and fame isolates individuals to a point, there have been many a report of a celebrity spiralling out of control, but, the human being works at its best when it has routine, something to work towards and to plan your day around. Relaxing on a beach with “famous people” is fun at first, but it does not occupy a mind. Therefore, the more you party, the more you dip into self-loathing and concentrate on your regrets and problems.
This following paragraph may sound as if I am simplifying his next tweet too much, to paraphrase his statement, he mentions that he “met a great girl, but she went with someone else” Well, if that is the case then I guess it was not the right relationship and something did not click. If someone likes you then it should be for you, not someone’s money, not their lifestyle, not how many cars they have, but you. If two people want to know each other purely on financial means, then that is not what true love is, but a polluted bought notion of it.
Oscar Wilde coined a famous phrase, “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Markus ‘Notch’ Persson is caught in this paradox; a huge wealth is not all you need but direction, motivation and also who you have around you.
Many of you with home internet plans may have to deal with monthly data caps. For some this cap can be a real pain as a full household streaming and consuming content can easily rack up the gigabytes. While ISPs claim many different reasons to justify their caps, one common excuse is that the heavier users should pay more if the network infrastructure is not capable of handling the constant load.
Major US ISP Comcast recently started rolling out a 300GB “data cap” in certain regions. While the company is loath to call it a cap since customers can go over it, the heavy overage charges essentially make it a cap. When questioned about the low cap, VP of internet services Jason Livingood tweeted that-
“No idea—I’m involved on the engineering side to manage the measurement systems but don’t weigh in on the business policies”.
Implicit in that statement is that the data caps are managed as a business policy and that there is no real engineering or technical need for data caps. This makes a lot of sense as data caps do not help manage network usage at any point in time, rather, they only control the total usage over a month. Congestion however, happens on a very small time scale, meaning time-based limits would make much more sense, with users moving their more bandwidth heavy but not urgent usage to off-peak times.
This statement from Livingood pretty much confirms that Comcast, and probably many other ISPs, only have data caps in place so they can charge customer overage fees. Given the ever increasing bandwidth demands and the relatively low caps, ISPs can pretty much reap in the extra cash without having to really do anything. Why do you think data caps exist?
An unlikely union between a bunch of Ukrainian hackers and unscrupulous US stock traders yielded profits of up to $100 million through illegal insider trading. The hackers stole confidential press releases, which it then made available to traders, over the course of five years, US authorities have revealed.
Nine people have been charged with insider trading after they were found to have used around 150,000 fraudulently obtained press releases relating from Business Wire, Marketwired, and PR Newswire. It is believed that the traders would put together a ‘shopping list’ of releases for the Ukrainian hackers to obtain. The helpful hackers even went so far as to create video tutorials, instructing traders how to exploit the information held within the press releases.
“This is the story of a traditional securities fraud scheme with a twist – one that employed a contemporary approach to a conventional crime,” Diego Rodriguez, FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge, said at a news conference.
“This case illustrates how cyber criminals and those who commit securities fraud are evolving and becoming more sophisticated,” U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey added. “The hackers were relentless and they were patient.”
The data theft could spell the end for the traditional business news wire outlets, already bypassed by companies such as Google, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and Tesla, which have taken to publishing important information to their own websites instead.
Thank you Reuters for providing us with this information.
It looks a lot like Google didn’t do their research properly on their name change before announcing it a few days ago and now it might fail altogether. As it turns out, someone already trademarked the very normal word Alphabet and that company is the German car manufacturer BMW.
BMW has been using the Alphabet name for quite some time on their in-house leasing service as well as other places and it has been trademarked the entire time, so a spokesperson for BMW told Reuters. Google hasn’t contacted BMW to acquire that name either and BMW also assures that they don’t have any interest to sell the name to the electronic search giant. BMW’s Alphabet site is currently offline based on traffic generated by Google’s news on the new name.
Google can now either take the whole issue to court and fight for the right to use the name, but that will most likely be a pointless endeavor. Two companies using the same name isn’t a problem unless they operate in the same field, and Google operates a car business, just as BMW does. What the outcome will be is something that only time can tell us, but I’m sure that these aren’t easy days for Larry Page and his team at Google HQ.
Thank You Reuters for providing us with this information
We’ve heard that Microsoft plans on killing the old Lync app for business chat and meetings and integrate everything in Skype, namely Skype for Business. In a blog post, Microsoft today announced that it just released Skype for Business preview apps on iOS and Android, just months after it announced the Skype for Business project.
They state that the new apps come with a new and improved dashboard for easy navigation of contacts, calls, and meetings, while also updating the In-Call and In-Meeting experience. The dashboard now seems to show upcoming meetings and recent conversations in one place, while its new handy tools are built to make your life easier. For example, the contact search bar now find contacts by first and last name, email address, and even phone numbers. In addition to the latter, all contacts in your phone are now automatically included in the search.
The In-Call and In-Meeting experience is now more fluid and easier to navigate on smartphones and tables by making the buttons larger. Also, videos now fill the entire screen, but the best part is that you can now browse content while in a call or meeting, view it in full size and view the speaker’s video at the same time.
Skype for Business apps are said to work with anyone on Lync Server 2013, Skype for Business Server 2015 and Skype for Business Online. IT Administrators who wish to take part in the preview can get more details by visiting the Skype for Business Preview app web page here.
Oh John, you’re entertaining but as sane as a lorry load of peanuts. John has been arrested again and this time the charge is for DUI and possession of a handgun while under the influence, this was after legging it from police in Belize; it takes some talent to be drunk, high and armed at the same time.
I am not quite sure police are taking him seriously after an individual by the name of Sheila Austin, who is the warrants clerk for the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that he was that McAfee before stating “I don’t know why he would move to a little town like ours,” According to authorities, McAfee resides in a place by the name of Lexington Tenn, yep me neither, so I researched this and it turns out Tenn is short for Tennessee and is located within the western part of the state between Nashville and Memphis, which is based ideally for the music scene.
John McAfee was released on a bond of $5,000 (£3228) approx, but not before a mug shot was taken, which is below, in the great words of noted wordsmith Afroman, because I got high, because I got high, la, la, la, la.
On a serious note, it just goes to show how John McAfee has fallen after losing most of his $100 million dollar fortune which is owed to the stockmarket crash of 2008. He had been living in Belize until police paid him a visit to ask why his neighbour was dead, at which point he fled to Montreal Canada where he lived with his wife before eventually moving to Tennessee. John McAfee stated in an interview that his assists were frozen by law enforcement in Belize with the outcome being close being broke.
It’s difficult to pinpoint what this eccentric entrepreneur will do next. He is the type of person to be involved with a tank, or a rocket or possibly blowing something up, good job hes not allowed anywhere near nuclear missiles.
Thank You CNN Money and image for providing us with this information
San Francisco-based transportation Network Company Uber has been a revelation in terms of market adoption and consumer exposure. But, the key is successful financial management which benefits the long-term viability of a company; this has been placed in a questionable stasis by alleged leaked financial Documents which covey’s a somewhat punishing set of results from Uber’s point of view.
Gawker has purportedly leaked Uber’s financial results which show operating losses of more than $100m (£65m) in the second quarter of 2014, albeit coupled with steady growth in revenue. This is an astonishing figure which is compounded by an astronomical valuation which sets the total value of the company at $50bn; this makes Uber one of the most funded start-ups in the world.
Below is the documents which Gawker have published, now, this slightly confused me too, but eTeknix have clarified the figures. Everything is actually x1000, so when the Net Loss for 2013 is $56,530, this means it is in reality $56 million. The second document lays out quarterly profits and losses in 2012 and part of 2013, this shows healthy revenue coupled with steadily deepening losses. In 2012, Uber’s losses totalled $20.4 million; from the first quarter of 2012 until mid-2013, quarterly losses more than doubled from $3.5 million to $8.1 million.
Uber released a statement which did not deny the existence or the validity of these documents but outlines the following,
“Shock, horror, Uber makes a loss. This is hardly news and old news at that, It’s the case of business 101: you raise money, you invest money, you grow, you make a profit and that generates a return for investors.”
Which is true, any business has to invest capital in order to grow, the only question centres around the point when it becomes unsustainable. For me it’s reckless to value a perceived wealth of a company at such a high figure, it raises expectations to a level to which assets cannot compete. Revenue has to be maximised while minimizing losses, otherwise shareholders will become nervous and sceptical of projected figures which places Uber in a tricky position.
The long-awaited option to synch shared folders on OneDrive is finally here. Microsoft finally started to roll out an update that allows users to sync content in shared folders and have it pushed to other users as soon as the files get synced.
Up until now, Google Drive and Dropbox took the lead in sharing folders and making it easier to collaborate with other people on the same projects. I personally preferred Dropbox so far due to the fact that it synced files and delivered the updated files to colleagues almost instantly (depending on the internet speed, of course). However, as Microsoft wants to integrate OneDrive in its upcoming Office 2016 suite, changes needed to be made.
Besides, synching folders in OneDrive was one of the top upvoted features in Microsoft’s feedback forum, so it was bound to be implemented sooner or later. You may not have the feature yet, but Microsoft is said to have started gradually rolling out the update to users. Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Mac OS X will get the aforementioned update, and yes, it seems that Windows 8.1 will be skipped. OneDrive Director of Product Management, Angus Logan, tells that Microsoft is focusing on Windows 10 and this might be a way to ‘force’ users to update to the latest Microsoft OS.
It seems that Microsoft is moving one step closer to helping businesses collaborate and make it easier to share and sync files, but is it enough to get you to switch to OneDrive? We like to know what software you are using to share folders. Is it Dropbox, Google Drive, or will you switch to OneDrive in the end? Let us know!
Thank you PCWorld for providing us with this information
Drones are becoming more popular than ever, but flying them around now poses a bit of a risk. This is why Google wants to bring order to low altitude airspace, namely the airspace below 500ft, so its Wing drones may be able to fly safely and avoid collisions.
Google proposed that all people operating a drone should send their location info back to the airspace access and collision avoidance. In doing so, air traffic control authorities then could pass on the information to private airspace service providers. This is how Dave Vos, head of the Wing project at Google, said it sees the future of drone control.
Vos said that private airspace control companies, which he calls ASPs, can manage these low airspace requests from anyone willing to fly drones around. In his vision, ASPs should be given a brief flight plan of drones who request take-off, which are evaluated based on other drone flight paths. The ASPs can then determine if flight path changes need to be made to avoid collision, or even deny requests based on how congested the traffic is in the area.
At this point, low altitude airspace is mostly left unregulated, so everyone with a drone or any other sort of flying contraption can make use of them. However, with Google, Amazon and other big companies starting to take an interest in drones and how they can use them in their daily business activities, low altitude airspace needs some sort of traffic management system.
But this also means that most people who want to fly their drone in parks or above their house will most likely be denied to do so once regulations are in place. So how comfortable are you with this decision? Do you think that a low altitude airspace management system is needed? Let us know!
Thank you PCWorld for providing us with this information
AMD has published their financial report for the second quarter of 2015 and recorded a loss of $181 million or $0.23 per share. In comparison, AMD’s financial standing at the same point last year yielded a $30 million net loss or $0.05 per share. The GAAP revenue figures illustrate the downturn in AMD’s total revenue from $1.44B in Q2 of 2014 to $942M in Q2 2015. These results are pretty abysmal and a staggering 34% reduction year-over-year. Even more shocking is the fact that AMD has seen a 54% decrease year-over-year from Q2 2014 in the computing and graphics market. AMD believes the root cause is dwindling PC sales meaning their APUs in OEM machines are deployed in such a short supply.
Additionally, AMD initially planned to launch a number of 20nm APU products but transferred to a FinFET process. This move cost AMD $33 million which explains why AMD’s financials are so poor. However, Q3 2015 figures should lead to improved financials due to AMD’s 300 series and Fiji graphic cards. While the 300 cards are fairly basic rebrands, they do offer a good price to performance ratio compared to NVIDIA’s GTX 960, 970 and 980. However, the Fury X wasn’t the game changer we were all hoping for and struggles to keep up with custom cooled GTX 980 Tis.
So what does the future hold for AMD? That’s a very difficult question to answer given their precarious position. Even though the figures are awful, it doesn’t mean AMD are going to suddenly fold in the coming months. The next quarter is vital and they need strong sales from the new graphical line-up. If NVIDIA continue to dominate this market share and extend their advantage, then AMD will be in a very difficult position without the R&D resources required to compete.
Thank you WCCFTech for providing us with this information.
